After experiencing the Sylvania Wilderness two weeks prior for the first time, I took my wife, Nast, with me to experience this wonderful place. We had reservations at the Beaver 1 campsite on Mountain Lake. Our trip started off at the launch on Crooked Lake. We wound our way through the lake keeping a close eye on the map. I believe it would be unwise to navigate Crooked Lake without some kind of map as it really lives up to its name and can get confusing with all the winding narrows and bays. We made it to the campsite without any issues and even caught a small northern along the way. We got all set up and tried fishing Mountain Lake without success. The loons were very vocal throughout the entire trip which was amazing.
It got pretty cold that first night. I did not verify how cold it was, but it was probably in the low 30's. The next morning was calm, and Mountain Lake was a beautiful sheet of glass. There were a few other campsites which were occupied, but the campers did fairly well at keeping quiet. We went fishing on Crooked Lake as Nast wanted to catch a northern. Nast ended up catching a few largemouth bass and had a northern on, but it got off. After working the shoreline for a while, we noticed fish surfacing in the middle. We decided to troll through the swirling fish with spoons and see what we could get. We ended up catching multiple nice crappie using this method. Neither of us had ever caught a crappie before so it was a lot of fun and a very memorable experience.
We went fishing later that evening and Nast caught a nice smallmouth bass using the trolling method. Unfortunatly, right after catching the bass, Nast accidentally threw her pole in lake which sank right to the bottom. Needless to say, that ended her fishing part of the trip. The sunset on the lake that night was beautiful with red waves riding on the clouds while the sun dipped below the trees.
After another cold night, we made a warming fire the following morning, packed up, and headed back. This was a special trip for multiple reasons. First of all, Nast's birthday was only a few days away. Secondly, it was our first camping trip alone without the kids since 2015. This will be a trip we will always remember, and hopefully, we will bring the kids with us here some day.
